Ft. Worth Zoo

We went to Texas to see Mark's sister and my brother and their families for Thanksgiving. Texas is such a fun and interesting place. I've never seen so much American pride!

On Friday we went to the Fort Worth zoo with my brother and his family.

The girls loved their cousin Analee

Feeding the birds - probably our favorite spot in the zoo. You can buy seed sticks to feed them.

One landed on Mark

Megan had a great time chasing them.

Kendra feeding a bird - as long as they stayed on the stick she enjoyed them.

Jacob, Analee and Kendra sitting on an alligator

My brother, sister-in-law and their son Sam

Kendra at the petting zoo - Megan was asleep for this part, but she would have loved it.

Kendra playing at the little kid area

"I'm this big"

According to Kendra

Today Kendra gave the 11th Article of Faith in Primary. She repeated what Mark whispered in her ear and said, " We claim the privilege of worshiping all our Gods according to the dictates of our ward conference...." Good job Kendra!

Just A Couple of Things

Kendra went to a speed racer birthday party last weekend. Each child got a box that had been converted into a car. It is now the girls' favorite toy. Amazing how something so simple can entertain them for so long.

I have always hated the colors in the kitchen and family room. The kitchen was a green and the family room was brown. So I have been painting each weekend for the last month. I made the family room a beige color and the kitchen a garnet color.

I stayed up until 1 am finishing the kitchen because it was in such disarray and was very difficult with the kids around. I regretted that decision later when the children were up early!

For the Grandparents

Here are a couple of videos of the kids. Kendra ran around like a dinosaur but she always stops when I get the camera. The other video is of Megan saying a few words.

Halloween

On Friday we did our ward trunk or treat. Megan seemed uninterested in the candy until we came home and Kendra dumped hers all over the floor. Then she couldn't stop playing in it.

Yesterday we went to the Malloween (Halloween at the mall). Most of the stores pass out candy to the children. It was fun. Here is a picture of the girls walking with Mark. Kendra is Jessie and Megan is Bullseye from Toy Story. I made Kendra's costume but bought Megan's on ebay. Horses just aren't popular this year!

In our little box labeled Halloween we have nerd glasses from when Mark was in college and dressed up like a nerd. Megan looks so funny. We have a picture of Kendra around this age wearing them too.

We have childproof locks on our cupboards but some are broken. This is Megan's favorite activity when I am distracted by dinner. She loves to pull everything out.

A week or so ago as Kendra lie on the floor Megan tackled her. She proceeded to sit and step on her sister with Kendra laughing all the while.

Balloon Fiesta

Every year Albuquerque holds the international balloon fiesta. For those of you who don't speak spanish, balloon fiesta is spanish for, "balloon party."

We've been here for 4 years and have never attended. But I decided (mostly because we can't go to Disneyland) that we need to create happy family memories. So we got up at 5:30 am, spent 1 1/2 hours in traffic to drive 10 miles and made our way through thousands of people for this:

I took a picture of the lighthouse for my Grandpa - he was a sailor and loved the ocean.

Kendra's favorite.

"Wo - woo"

Darth Vador is not only the coolest balloon on the field, but they have storm troopers too!

So Cool.

Officers let Kendra pet their horses.

Our Weekend

We had the primary program today and Kendra was the ADHD kid up on the stand. Some people said she entertained them the whole time. Yes, seriously she was jumping up and down, waving, doing hand/arm motions, turning around - she just couldn't sit still. I worked on the songs with her but next time we'll work on reverence. Many people complimented her because she knew all the words to every song.

Saturday was free museum day (through the smithsonian magazine - I printed a coupon for Mark and I) and the museum we chose was 1/2 price so we all got in the dinosaur museum for $2.00. Megan said, "roar" alot.

Mark and the girls next to the bird from "UP"

I visited my neighbor the other day when gravity got the best of Megan. She face planted into her driveway. She has a rugburn on her face near her eye. Poor thing.

It has since scabbed over and now it bleeds when Megan rubs it.

The gear and sprocket on our garage door broke on Friday so that needed replacement. I'd prefer to spend money on something fun for my house like, new paint or furniture. Oh well.

I threw a baby shower for someone who use to be in our ward. This is one thing I made - they are baby socks that I rolled to look like roses. I also made a diaper cake - very simple with just ribbon around it.

Sisterly Love

Now that Megan can walk Kendra wanted to hold hands with her. Megan thought it was fun and screamed for her sister when she let go. You can see how much she loved it.

This video shows the personalities of our children.

Rendezvous

When the kids woke on Wednesday at 5:30 am I hoped they'd go back to sleep. Sometimes I can get them to go back to sleep in my bed until at least 6:30. But that wasn't the case on Wednesday. I turned on the news and the first thing I heard was, "and today is only $2.00 admission to the state fair." What?!?! We are so going. Mark didn't want to miss out on the fun so we picked him up from work, went to the fair for two hours, and then had to drop him off for his meeting. Fun little rendezvous. We went to the petting zoo, saw the bunnies and some other animals, and did McDonald's farm. Kendra loved petting the goats and sheep but Megan was apprehensive which surprised me. I totally forgot the camera otherwise I'd post some really cute pictures.

Megan decided two days ago that she would walk on her own. I knew she could do it, she just chose not to.

Megan is so serious when she reads a book. I wish I got her face in the picture, it's quite hilarious.

My favorite moment with the two. They both sit on their little couch. Kendra reads to Megan while Megan pulls all the books off the shelf.

Our Day Out

We haven't been able to go out and do much as a family so we went to the aquarium/botanic garden yesterday.

Megan wanted to touch anything that moved. Kendra kept holding her hand out for a butterfly to land on, but none did.

Mark was elated that he got to hold a whip scorpion and wants the world to know of this accomplishment. Guess we should put this picture on facebook.

Mark and his cockroach.


The man with the bugs showed Megan the cockroach and she immediately grabbed it and began pulling its legs. So I had to give it back to the man.

What cute sisters. They have a children's place in the botanic garden.

Kendra pointing to the garden spider webbed between two bushes.

Megan loves fish!

Thus Is Life

So a month or two ago as I drove on the freeway a semi truck threw a rock at my windshield and not only chipped it but it immediately cracked up to the top and around towards the middle. About two weeks ago I finally replaced it. Not that it was so bad that it had to be replaced, but when the sun hit the crack it was blinding. So we replaced it before we went to Utah. So yesterday as I drove around town a large diesel big rig sent a rock flying that hit my windshield and cracked it too!! Are you kidding me!?!?

We took a trip to Utah for the Labor Day weekend. We saw my family (mom and dad, brother Aaron and his son Alec who flew in from Portland, and sister Shoni) and some of Mark's family (his brother, wife and two kids and sister, husband and seven kids).

We went to see BYU play Washington.

Kendra brought her cougar to hold up during the game.

Yes, that is Elder Holland attending the game. He came in just as we were passing. Mark got this shot.

This is Mark's niece Emily who ran a cross country meet the weekend we were there. That girl just behind her tried to beat her at the end but Emily pushed herself to stay ahead.

Here we are at the Wilke waiting for the bookstore to open. Kendra helped Megan walk.

Mark's family that lives in Utah.

Mark's sister Denise has cats and both girls couldn't get enough of them.

The bean museum has a children's play area.



Megan enjoying the animals at the Bean.

NAET

There comes a point when you will do anything, no matter how insane, for help. I reached that point in May, maybe April. I knew something was wrong with Megan. She never got over croup. It flipped a switch in her and no matter what I did, how many antibiotics she took, or how many doctors we visited could fix it. There was only one doctor left and there was good reason why I hadn't gone to her yet. She is a naturopathic doctor and doesn't take insurance. But I was now desperate and willing to do whatever I had to.

We made our first appointment in May but couldn't be seen until June. I just kept telling myself, "I can make it until June." I was wrong. The sleep deprivation was too intense by this time. Not only had I gotten up about every two hours for almost a year, but I had a child that had, at that time, been sick for 3 months which meant I was up all night, not just every 2 hours. I was beyond exhaustion. I felt I was losing it. I couldn't think straight and often would find items that belonged in the fridge in the cupboard. I wanted to be sent to an insane asylum where they would give me narcotics and I could sleep for a week. Heaven on earth right there. But for some reason I couldn't quite fall off the edge; my kids, although the cause of the sleep deprivation, kept me going.

On our first appointment Mark met me at the office. He wanted to know exactly what we were doing with Megan. I hadn't researched it at all because, frankly, I didn't care. I would have done anything at that point. Dr. Chernoff uses Nambudripads Allergy Elimination Technique (NAET) to free interferences in the bodie's meridians. Yeah, I still don't know exactly how it works. I was very skeptical because all over the office there are testimonials and I didn't believe that it could have possibly done all those things people said. But inside I hoped I would have a testimonial too.

Megan was pretty much allergic to everything. Her body was basically fighting against itself. She could only eat bananas and rice for about 7 weeks until we could get through some of the treatments. It was a long road. Megan had a tendency to cough and vomit (what else?) when her body released the toxins. At one point Megan was so sick I thought, "if this is what NAET does I don't want any part of it!!" And debated whether to even return. But at the same time, if it made Megan sick, then it was working! So I was even upset that it worked.

This is when I first began to love NAET. Megan was coughing and vomiting. Her lungs sounded like she had a ton of fluid in them. I went to her pediatrician who said, "her lungs sound fine...hmmm...try a humidifier and see if that helps." Then, a few days later we saw the GI specialist for her acid reflux. He said," let's give her two doses of prevacid a day - and see if that will help her." That weekend she had horrible puking and diarrhea. The poor thing was miserable. When I saw Dr. Chernoff a couple days later I told her about our awful weekend. She checked Megan and said, "Oh, she's allergic to soy." That was her formula at the time. We switched her to goats milk and treated her for soy and she began to show improvement. Amazing.

Now the really amazing part is that 2 1/2 months after beginning NAET, Megan, who was suppose to be on 2 doses of prevacid a day until January, is no longer taking it!!! She doesn't need it!!! Isn't that incredible?!?! And she sleeps at least 8 hours at night (most of the time). She no longer has a cough or a snotty nose or vomit or constipation. It has been the most incredible transformation. And the best part is that I feel so much better. We all do. It's crazy, I don't know how it works, but the result has been remarkable.